Page 14 - The Social Weapon: Darwinism

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With his theory of evolution, Darwin sought to apply this
philosophy of selfishness to the natural sciences. Ignoring the

examples of solidarity and cooperation created by God in na-
ture, he maintained that all living things were engaged in a ruth-
less struggle for survival. On the basis of no scientific evidence
whatsoever, he even claimed that this same ruthlessness applied
to human societies. When his theory of evolution was applied to
human society, social Darwinism appeared on the scene.
Some people suggest that Social Darwinism was born in
the second half of the 19th century and lost its influence during
the second half of the 20th. But this theory has had far more per-
manent and damaging adverse effects. A twisted world view, in
complete contradiction to religious moral values, has spread, al-
leging that life is a “struggle for survival,” and that people need
to compete in order to succeed in that struggle, or at the very
least to survive. New lifestyles emerged that were the source of
totalitarian and bloody ideologies like communism and fascism,
ferocious capitalism that ignores social justice; racism, ethnic
conflicts, moral degeneration, and many more disasters that in-
flicted catastrophes on humanity.

All of a sudden, Social Darwinism imparted an alleged sci-
entific validity to existing evils, ruthless policies and practices.
Adopting that trend, which lacks any scientific basis whatso-
ever, many people failed to live by religious moral values and
began to regard ruthlessness, savagery and cruelty as unexcep-
tional. They ignored the fact that religious moral values require
virtues such as compassion, affection, understanding, self-sacri-
fice, solidarity and mutual support between individuals and so-
cieties. Perpetrators claimed a scientific foundation to their
cruelty, and that therefore, the savagery they inflicted could be
regarded as justified. These false claims and suppositions were
of course a terrible deception.

The Social Weapon: Darwinism